Chinese occupation of Tibet

Funny & sad cartoons

2008-04-13T15:50:00.000-07:00

Do have a look here at YouTube apparently he is working on 10 cartoons, see Lopes' blog for more info.

Chinese Cyber-terrorism

2008-04-13T05:01:00.000-07:00

What is happening on the Internet? YouTube videos disappearing, websites disappear, numerous new blogs, older blogs overflowing with comments of Chinese propaganda, email threats to journalists...

It seems the Chinese Government has appealed to Chinese living abroad (for example students on US or Canadian universities) to create an explosion of propaganda on the internet.

Yesterday, Tibet.net was hacked by 'unknown hackers' (they don't leave their name behind), videos on YouTube disappear by voting massively against it, it is removed from YouTube (for example a video that showed in detail how a Chinese video how rioters attacked a motorcyclist was orchestrated), many new blogs are popping up stuffed with Chinese propaganda, and the comments that you can read on this blog tend to speak for themselves as well.

So now, after completely censoring the internet in their own country, the Chinese Government has now started to censor the Internet worldwide - of course that makes their case much more acceptable and sympathetic...

When will someone take this blog down, as I'm certainly not agreeing with the Chinese Government deluded view on Tibet and on Human Rights in general?

Agam's blog comments on this much more elaborately today.

Alarming SMS from Amdo-Tibet

2008-04-13T04:46:00.000-07:00

An unconfirmed SMS from Amdo, cultural Tibet:
"there are about 2000 Tibetans put in the prison in Amdo. They are all being sentenced to death.
PLS FORWARD THIS MESSAGE EDVERYONE "THOSE WHO HAS SENSE OF NATIONALITY and all our friend"

Please pray with me that this message is incorrect.

Undercover in Tibet - Channel 4 documentary

2008-04-12T14:44:00.000-07:00

Channel 4 British Television:

More people jailed?

2008-04-11T18:00:00.001-07:00

Just received an unconfirmed report that some 2,000 people are jailed in the Amdo region.
Please pray that the authorities are good sports and we will see them again alive and unhurt.

An invitation to young Chinese and Tibetans

2008-04-05T10:35:00.000-07:00

I am not happy with this blog.

The point is that perhaps it provides some information, but it doesn't help much to improve the situation. So, instead of informing others about what is happening, I like to hear from you what we could do about it.

What do you think can be done about the current situation in China?

China wants to be a respected country in the world, and likes a proper level of economic growth to make the people happy.
Hosting the Olympic Games should help to present a 'New China', which is well-developped and prosperous.
But now, the Tibetan people show their unhappiness, and it is possible that other minorities in China (like from Uigur) that are also unhappy will also begin more demonstrations.

Do you, as young Chinese or Tibetan think that arresting people, hurting them and try to make them say things they do not agree with, will make them happy citizens?

If you are interested to think about a solution, perhaps I can open a special Discussion Forum to discuss these kind of questions.
Of course others are more then welcome to react here also! The main point is to see if we can generate ideas for solutions to this challenge.

Another 'splittist'

2008-04-05T06:24:00.000-07:00

From Time Magazine,Monday, Mar. 17, 2008
By Simon Robinson in Kathmandu

"Phuntsok arrived in this polluted, traffic-crammed city six days ago, dusty and weary after a 15-day journey from Tibet, a small duffle and a handful of clothes his only possessions. He was happy to have made it out, he says. Or rather he was happy until he phoned home to Lhasa to hear the news: Tibet was on fire and the same anger and frustration that had pushed Phuntsok to leave his homeland at the age of just 17 was now being turned against Chinese police and the shops and houses of recent Chinese migrants by his fellow Tibetans.
"I left too early," he says. "I wish I could be there with the protesters. I don't care if I die. I actually would like the opportunity to die alongside my relatives and friends."
In that first phone call home to his parents, he says, he learned that his 19-year-old cousin had joined the demonstrators and been shot dead by Chinese police. "I should have been there," says Phuntsok calmly."

How to win the hearts of the Tibetans...

2008-04-04T17:24:00.000-07:00

From Tibet.net

"2 April 2008: Chinese "work-teams" arrived at various monasteries including Tongor monastery, Tongkor Township, in their attempt to give "patriotic re-education" classes.

Chinese "work-teams" also attempted a signature campaign to get people to denounce His Holiness the Dalai Lama and refer to him as a "splittist." The monk in charge of the monastery, Lobsang Jamyang, openly rejected the campaign.

Yeshi Nyima, also a monk from Tongor monastery, stood up during a "patriotic re-education" session and shouted that the he would not provide his signature, even at the cost of his life. The other monks of the monastery also made the same statements.

3 April 2008: People's Armed Police (PAP) and Public Security Bureau (PSB) arrived at Tongkor monastery in response to yesterday's incident at the monastery.

The PAP and PSB conducted thorough searches of all the monk quarters and confiscated portraits of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the spiritual head of the monastery. They also took away mobile hand-sets and money belonging to the monks.

Geshe Tsultrim Gyatso, a 70-year old monk who demanded that His Holiness the Dalai Lama's portrait not be taken down, was arrested and taken into custody.

Laypeople (living nearby Tongor monastery) held a protest in support of the monks at Tongor monastery. Tsultrim Phuntsok, a 26 year old man, was arrested during the protest.

Around 8 - 9 PM, loud gun shots were heard in the Tongor village area. Later it was confirmed that Nyima and Kabook (both monks from Tongor monastery) were severely injured from gunshots. Currently, we have no additional details on number of people injured or killed.

There are around 300 monks at Tongor monastery. However, since the incident at Tongor monastery only a few senior monks remain at the monastery. Currently, we have no information on the whereabouts of the other monks."

Only the wisest and the stupidest of men never change.
Confucius

Bad news, but a glimpse of hope as well

2008-04-04T15:13:00.000-07:00

First the bad news, extracted from Christopher Bodeen's article at Yahoo News:
In Gharze, (west-Tibet) police opened fire on monks and lay protesters. Tibetans report 8 protesters died. Xinhua merely reports an injured police officer as victim.
May Tibetans, Chinese, Uigurs and all others be free from sufering and the causes for future suffering.

A glimpse of hope extracted from an article at TCHRD.org, summarized & clipped by me:

On March 25th, hundreds of Tibetans staged a peaceful solidarity march. The marchers ended their procession at the Holkha Township government headquarters where they held a sit-in protest and recited prayer throughout the day. Although PAP and PSB officials were seen in their combat gear during the entire peaceful march, there was no report of arrest or detention of Tibetan marchers that day.
[Thank you, thank you.]

Next day, the authorities launched an early morning raid and arrested at least three Tibetans. In response to those arrests, more than 600 Tibetans staged a full-day peaceful sit-in protest to demand immediate release of those arrested. The protesters dispersed after township authorities agreed to secure their releases. The sources confirmed that protesters pledge to undertake a similar protest at the government headquarters if authorities fail to deliver their promise.

Why is this a sparkle of hope?
Nobody got killed or injured!
If only the leaders in charge of China would understand that this is a win-win situation.
My honest personal thanks to the officer-in-charge at Holkha for his restraint.
May his wisdom spread to the higher cadres.

If he now also understands that the arrests serve no purpose whatsoever, forgets about any deadline, and release the prisoners, he would be in charge of a peaceful area - something even his superiors would appreciate.

Chinese logic for dummies

2008-04-03T16:05:00.000-07:00

So why does the Chinese Government still believe that indoctrination sessions helps people to be happy?
Thank you Joshua Michael Schrei for this all-important insight:

"A lie repeated a hundred times becomes the truth."
Chairman Mao

So if every Chinese is patriotic enough to say 'bad Dalai Lama', gee, we must have given the Nobel Peace Prize to the worst person who ever lived on this planet?

Encouraging local support the Chinese way

2008-04-03T15:25:00.000-07:00

Agam writes straight from my heart:

"While China has long claimed overwhelming local support for its policies in Tibet, recent events firmly belie that claim. Therefore, indoctrination must be intensified. They just don't have a clue, and apparently couldn't find one were they in the middle of a clue field, smeared with clue musk and blowing the clue mating call whistle. This is exactly what makes Tibetans angry. "Well," they seem to be thinking, "let's do more of it then.""

More recent reports on the return of the good-old indoctrination sessions.

China's free cremation service...

2008-04-03T14:56:00.000-07:00

The TibetCustom.com website reports:

"The Pubic Security Bureau (PSB) forcefully took the body of Lhakpa Tsering from his family telling them that some investigations needed to be done at the Peoples Procuratorates. His body was later cremated in Toelung (west of Lhasa) and only his ashes were returned to his family in a plastic bag with his name written on it.

On March 24, Kunga (a monk from Chokri monastery) in Drakgo (Ch: Luhuo) County, Karze "Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture," Sichuan province, was shot and killed during a demonstration at Chokri Monastery. On March 25, his body was forcefully taken from Chokri monastery and cremated nearby."

TibetCustom.com also publish a list on the same page with the names of 44 Tibetans identified to have been killed in the riots so far of a total of around 140.
It seems the Chinese Government's body count is quite a bit lower then the Tibetans claim - perhaps cremations are not counted as deaths?

A pinch of irony

2008-04-03T14:38:00.000-07:00

From an article at Phayul.com:

"It is ironic that China, a country that does not allow the operation of a free press, should accuse the Western media of bias in its coverage of the dramatic events in Tibet, including the use of double standards" - not the words of a Western journalist but of Frank Ching writing this week in the South China Morning Post.

Warning, more Chinese fake videos on their way!

2008-04-02T15:20:00.000-07:00

More from Agam's Blog

The monks of Kirti monastery in exile, located in Dharamsala, received contact from their brothers in Ngaba county. Accounts of the raids as of March 28 were given. Thousands of security forces entered 6 monasteries in the area, raiding the monks' rooms and confiscating all means of communication. Monks were forced at gunpoint to step on photographs of Dalai Lama. The Chinese then staged some scenes and videotaped them.
* They forced some monks to hold up a portrait of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan national flag.
* A small monk was forced to hide half his body underneath the wooden floorboards and made to place his hands on the keyboard of a lap top computer.

One of the monks was able to make a secret phone call to the Kirti monks in India.
"I am worried that the CCP is creating false evidence to try to show that His Holiness the Dalai Lama is the mastermind behind the protests in Tibet. The security forces forced us to act out these scenes against our will with guns pointed at us. I appeal to the people of the world, do not be persuaded by these fake videos".

Back to the glorious Cultural Revolution?

2008-04-02T14:56:00.000-07:00

More evidence of the sad communication-gap...
From Agam's Blog

Shrill, Cultural Revolution-style denunciations are the order of the day when it comes to official PRC statements regarding Dalai Lama. He is the "cat's paw of international anti-China forces". Protesting monks are the "scum of Buddhism". And foreign critics have a "dark and despicable mentality".

Kellee Tsai, a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University says ordinary Chinese are "so thoroughly socialized by this idea," that any challenge triggers highly emotional reactions.
Such perceptions, Tsai said, extend to both ordinary citizens and well-educated intellectuals and officials, who may have been exposed to alternative viewpoints.
In an example of the depth of feeling, Tsai said a graduate student of hers received threats and insults from Chinese graduate students overseas after circulating an open letter from dissidents calling on Beijing to open talks with the Dalai Lama...
"Those who suggest that China might tone down its rhetoric or relax media controls are also likely to be viewed as being overly influenced by Western ideas, sympathetic to secessionist forces, and perhaps even unpatriotic," Tsai said.

The Chinese really miss Steven Spielberg..

2008-04-01T16:06:00.002-07:00

OR: HOW NOT TO FAKE AN ATTACK ON VIDEO

You shouldn't miss this; one of the worst fake attacks ever seen on video.

May all beings find happiness and the causes for happiness.

How revolutions work

2008-04-01T14:24:00.000-07:00

Party Member: "Are you happy after the revolution?"
Tibetan: "No"
PM: "How can that be?"
T: "Before I had two sets of clothes, now only one"
PM: "Don't complain, people in Africa run around naked."
T: "Really? Did they have two revolutions?"

Happy April 1st!

Please pray for the people in Tibet, Han or Tibetan, they all need it.

IOC wants Beijing to open Internet during Olympics

2008-04-01T10:14:00.000-07:00

AP[Tuesday, April 01, 2008 20:54]
By Stephen Wade

BEIJING, April 1 – The Internet must be open during the Beijing Olympics.

That was the message a top-ranking International Olympic Committee official delivered Tuesday to Beijing organizers during the first of three days of meetings – the last official sessions between IOC inspectors and the Chinese hosts before the games begin in just over four months.

Read more.

Thank you IOC!!!
If that would work, you will destroy all of China's Govt. work to keep it's citizens ignorant about the truth.
I pray that this wish will be granted though, however unrealistic it is...

China grabs onto the ultimate excuse of our times

2008-04-01T04:33:00.000-07:00

China: Tibetans planning suicide attacks
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer (April 1, 2008)

BEIJING - China on Tuesday accused "Tibet independence forces" of planning to use suicide squads to trigger bloody attacks — the lastest in a string of accusations that have taken aim at supporters of the Dalai Lama.
Read the article

Please pray with me that the Chinese will not go as far as blowing up an innocent Tibetan and next declare him a terrorist, just so they can say; "See, I told you so."
Afterall, their reasoning could well be: "Who cares about a couple of Tibetans after we killed more then a million of them? And something like this gave the USA the excuse to start two wars, so they will have to support us now?"

Why the Han Chinese don't understand the Dalai Lama

2008-03-31T18:08:00.000-07:00

Just discovered this very interesting article at the Phayul website: a Chinese perspective of the mis-communication and misunderstandings.

Links anyone?

2008-03-31T17:17:00.000-07:00

Allright, people ask for links about Tibet - I can't imagine why, but here are a few with news and background info that seem pretty interesting to me.

http://phayul.com - reliable news source by Tibetans
12 Things you should know about Tibet and China
agamsgecko blog - don't ask me why it's called like that, but pretty good blog about, well, among other stuff, also what this blog is about
the Epoch Times - critical of the Chinese Communist Party, perhaps not 100% reliable, but interesting if you are fed up with Chinese propaganda

Old news: Chinese orchestration of riots confirmed

2008-03-31T08:37:00.000-07:00

I receive a lot of questions about the Chinese orchestrating the riots in Tibet.

Apart from the growing evidence that is coming through - despite the two-way news blackout attempts of the Chinese government - there was an earlier report I missed.

In short:
"The violent riots that the Chinese state-run media have reported as having taken place in Lhasa are not what they seem to be, according to a former highly placed Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official.
Mr. Ruan Ming claims the CCP carefully staged the incidents in Tibet in order to force the Dalai Lama to resign and to justify future repression of the Tibetans.

Mr. Ruan Ming was a speechwriter for former CCP General Secretary Hu Yaobang. (The Epoch Times)"

For more, see the original article at Epoch Times at

http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-3-24/67972.html

Severe abuse at Chinese police stations

2008-03-31T06:47:00.000-07:00

Via friends, I'm receiving several reports now that the situations in the Lhasa police stations are incredible. Apparently, people who need medical attention (and a lot of them are of course, knowing how the Chinese deal with arrested people) are not receiving any.

Many Tibetans who were wounded and shot during the riots do not dare to go to the hospital, in fear of being arrested, and still receive no medical attention.

I read a first unconfirmed report that one protester had all his limbs broken at the police station, and his body was dumped on the street of his home.

With the Chinese trying to block any news coming out of Tibet, confirmations of these messages are obviously difficult...

More evidence of Chinese media manipulation

2008-03-31T04:27:00.000-07:00

Find the differences....

For decades now, the Chinese are trying to manipulate the media to cover up their actions, see this page at the Epoch Times of March 29 at http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-3-29/67906.html.

One of the "rioters" on the Chinese 'wanted' posters, also featured in CCTV's riot coverage, was a policeman. He was brandishing a long knife.
Then, a Thai tourist who happened to be around in a police station, saw this guy with the long knife entering, and re-appearing in police uniform... Back in Thailand, she saw the image and reported the incident

"On Xinhua and other Chinese-language Web sites friendly to the regime, after the rally at which the witness spoke, the policeman in disguise had disappeared from photos taken at the same scene in which he had previously been visible. Recently, the original man-with-the-knife photo has returned to these Web sites."

This was certainly not the first time of something like this: as Epoch Times noticed:

"In his "Events in Lhasa March 2-10, 1989", the Chinese journalist Tang Daxian revealed how the CCP orchestrated violence as part of a plan to suppress the 1989 protests in Tibet. "

And further: "According to the NY Times, "Foreigners and Lhasa residents who witnessed the violence were stunned by what they saw, and by what they did not see: the police. Riot police officers fled after an initial skirmish and then were often nowhere to be found." "

How gross can you get?

Lama Zopa Rinpoche's call for action - March 28

2008-03-31T04:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday (March 27, 2008) His Holiness the Dalai Lama spoke directly about the troubles in Tibet, asking all supporters worldwide to help in any way they can, providing that this happens in a strictly non-violent way. He explained that this is a moment of crisis, and that it is all of us, rather than the Tibetans in exile, who have the potential to shift the situation. His Holiness specifically stated, not for the first time, that Tibetan dharma cannot survive without Tibetan freedom. He explained that only Tibetan Buddhism has been able to preserve the full Nalanda tradition and its message of universal compassion, its techniques to promote inner values and its teachings on interdependence, with their extraordinary potential to bring peace and harmony to the modern world.
One of the only ways that we can influence the decisions of the Chinese government is to show that there is widespread and increasing public condemnation of their actions in Tibet. How can we do this? How can we link together all the feelings of individuals, who by themselves may feel powerless, but as a group could have an unforgettable impact?
We have a simple suggestion. We all want to stand up for Tibet. Let's do it, literally. Every day, let's commit to simply standing up. just for a few moments, with either a printed or digital photo of the Tibetan flag in our hands. Individually or in a group. Quietly or noisily. In the most creative and spectacular way imaginable. On the street, in schools, on trains and buses, in the workplace, in bars and restaurants. Let's be visible, newsworthy, fun and contagious. We want to make our feelings public throughout the world, and we want millions of people to join in.
March 31st has been designated an international day of action by the International Tibet Support Network. Will you stand up that day, wherever you happen to be? And then continue, as long as the situation lasts.
We are not only standing up for one country that is experiencing oppression, but for every act of injustice and repression that has happened personally to us, or to other people in the world.
This is something we can all do for Tibet. Who can you phone, text or email and encourage to join in? Can we make this happen across the globe, particularly during the next weeks, before it is too late? We need your help and are very grateful for anything you can do to make this happen.
With a big prayer for peace in TibetValentina and Alison
Spread at the request of Lama Zopa Rinpoche